East Jackson coach Greg Zeller said his team looks the best it has all season.

“We’re doing really well right now. That much is obvious,” Zeller said. “Our kids enjoy games like this. They were barely guarding us for some time out there. This was a confidence booster.”

The Trojans started the game on an 8-0 run and never looked back. The fast start quickly became a 10-2 lead and East Jackson was ahead 25-8 by the end of the first quarter.

East Jackson had four players in double-digits, led by senior guard Drevell Gallegos, who came off the bench to score 20 points. Ironically, the 5-foot-2 guard cited defense as the major factor for the Trojans' success against Manchester.

“Ever since I was little, I’ve always worked on defense first,” Gallegos said. “Playing good defense leads to good scoring chances, and thankfully I was able to make a play on some of those.”

Jordan Heuser led Manchester with 13 points. Coach Dave Arnold praised his efforts in a season that was over a long time ago for the Flying Dutchmen.

“Sometimes when you struggle guys start to loosen up the baseball gloves and get ready for spring break,” Arnold said. “Not these guys. They want to finish strong. They lost to probably the best team in the league.”

The Trojans also received notable contribution from start point guard Aaron Griffiths, who scored 14 points and dished out six assists.

“We take it one game at a time,” Griffiths said. “We have to get better every day. This is always a learning process for all of us. We know teams have beaten us. We can be beaten.”

The Trojans' last loss came to league-leading Hanover-Horton. East Jackson hosts Hanover-Horton on Feb. 12.

“We’ll be ready for that game, but we have a week to go until then,” Zeller said. “Anyone can sneak up on you and hand you a loss if you're not careful."